US to release annual report on international religious freedom

Washington: US Secretary of State John Kerry will today release the annual report on international religious freedom, a countrywise American assessment of religious freedom globally, the State Department said.

Mandated by the Congress, the bulky report would among other countries have a US assessment of religious freedom in India for the year 2014.

This will be the US’ first such analysis since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA came to power in May 2014. However, the report would not include the American assessment of the situation in 2015.

In the 2013 report, the last one to be released by the state department, the US had said there were reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice in India. These included violence between religious groups and organised communal attacks against religious minorities, it had pointed out.